Secondhand Smoke

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control has established that 58 million nonsmokers in the United States are still exposed to secondhand smoke. Although this number had dropped by half between 1999/2000 and 2011/2012, one in four nonsmokers (58 million people) are still exposed to secondhand smoke today, reports the CDC from the new “vital signs” report. The report also shows that two in every five children aged three to 11 years are still exposed to secondhand smoke.

Additional findings in the Vital Signs report included that:

• Nearly half of black nonsmokers are exposed to SHS.

• More than two in five nonsmokers who live below the poverty level are exposed to SHS.

• More than one in three nonsmokers who live in rental housing are exposed to SHS.

The report credits the overall decline in SHS exposure to several factors. To date, 26 states (including Washington), the District of Columbia, and almost 700 cities have passed comprehensive smoke-free laws prohibiting smoking in worksites, restaurants, and bars. These state and local laws currently cover almost half the US population. Also, cigarette smoking has declined significantly in the last two decades and smoking around nonsmokers has become much less socially acceptable.

The Surgeon General has concluded that there is no safe level of exposure to SHS, which contains over 7,000 chemicals including about 70 that cause cancer. It is a known cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, respiratory infections, ear infections, and asthma attacks in infants and children, as well as heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer in adult nonsmokers. Each year exposure to the SHS causes more than 41,000 deaths from lung cancer and heart disease among non-smoking adults and 400 deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.